General Introduction From 1 July 2014, U.S. withholding agents have imposed, with very limited exceptions, the new Internal Revenue Code (IRC) Chapter 4 withholding (a.k.a. FATCA) of 30 percent on ‘withholdable’ payments to foreign financial institutions (FFIs) that do not appear on the IRS’ published GIIN list. However, U.S. Treasury delayed the imposition of the…

I would like to use eight to ten posts to discuss the status quo of China’s fiscal and taxation law system and proposals for reform thereto. This first post will discuss the most recent development on PRC Budget Law. State budget is a systematic tool to carry out a country’s laws and policy decisions, balance allocable…

Uncertainty “When nothing is sure, everything is possible” – Margaret Drabble So often when people find out that I travel to Africa, the first thing I am asked is whether I ever feel unsafe. My answer is always that I am as careful as I would be travelling to any other part of the world….

2015 is full of new legislations to be applied by Brazilian companies, and investors should definitely wait for more changes in the tax arena, as the Brazilian Federal Government has had problems of deficit in public accounts. One of the most important laws relates to regulation of IFRS effects for tax purposes. Basically, law no….

The current global tax landscape changes fast and it is not difficult to find a topic for a blog. Do I start with the G20 angle for raising revenue, with the intra-country tax competition, with the BEPS project that surely will not deliver what the hard working staff of OECD expect? Or do I start…

An issue of topical interest for tax administrations in the heat of the BEPS Plan, examining the existence of a PE does not seem to be on the agenda of Brazilian authorities. In a ruling from June, 2014, the Revenue Service confirmed the long-standing Brazilian treaty practice of taxing income from services at source irrespective…

The OECD Joint Working Group on Business Restructurings is, in many respects, the precursor to the OECD BEPS project. Unresolved Business Restructuring issues, particularly in relation to permanent establishments, have appeared on the BEPS agenda. One question asked by the Joint Working Group was: Can an agency PE exist if the arrangements entered into did…

It is well known that the world’s economies have turned into a global economy during the last decades. Moreover, it is nowadays common knowledge – also outside the professional tax community – that states are fighting each other for tax revenue, while multinationals are trying to reduce their tax burden through tax planning that may…

The German, French and Italian finance ministers, in a letter to the Commissioner for Taxation and Customs, Pierre Moscovici, as of November 2014 (Financial Times, December 1, 2014), have urged the European Commission to curb aggressive tax planning, base erosion and profit shifting (BEPS) in the EU, mainly caused by the lack of tax harmonization…

Welcome to this very first blog on the new Kluwer International Tax Blog. As co-editors for this blog, we decided to write something together. We want to write about two things: why did we sign up for being the editors and what do we expect from this blog. First the why: Three reasons: One, it…